Shared Intuition
Driving is hard, but collective intuition makes it easy. Drivers from the same area have a learned sense of what is predictable behaviour from other drivers, developed through years of sitting in a car, either as a passenger or a driver. Good drivers can generally sense when another car wants to switch lanes or they're driving in another car's blindspot.
This works best when drivers have developed the same intuition, informed by the same driving environments. In monocultures (i.e., where most people are from the same place, speak the same language, and share culture), they know how other drivers think, and as such, know which driving "rules" they can safely break.
In India, red lights are suggestions, with drivers inching through intersections when it's clear. In Portugal, cars inches from one another are still within a safe distance.
In environments where drivers cannot predict another driver's intuition, the "rules" play a much larger role. The safest path forward is whichever follows the rules the closest.
In the cultural mosaic of North America, drivers are typically much more cautious and conservative in their drive habits and they grow to expect the same from other drivers. But this behaviour in another country would be unsafe because other drivers are not expecting that behaviour, even if the rules are technically being followed.
This applies to much more than just driving.